One Bad Scare Deserves Another
by racle
Summary: After Robin sees Slade again, his previous obsession returns...but BB accidentally inspires another idea. Rather than fighting Slade, they only need to give him a dose of his own medicine. [Complete]
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story and have no money with which to pay for a lawsuit.

Chapter 1: It wasn't a hallucination

For the first few nights after his experience with Slade's chemical reagent Robin slept well, which he hadn't for a long time. For he could finally know, or at least make himself believe, that Slade was gone forever.

One early morning the alarm sounded, disrupting everyone's sleep. The Titans, as usual (as was their duty) hurried to the scene, which was a bank robbery downtown. When they reached the bank they saw a familiar figure in gray armor with a half-orange mask and one eye.

The other Titans were confused. "I thought you said there was no Slade!" shouted Robin angrily. He drew his bowstaff, twirling it around himself rapidly as he charged towards Slade. Slade drew his own bowstaff and they traded blows.

"Have we all gotten a dose of that chemical reagent?" wondered Beast Boy aloud. The Titans used Cyborg's radar to check their eyesight. "I'm picking up Slade on my radar. He's real!" said Cyborg, surprised. The other Titans charged in. Beast Boy transformed into a rhinoceros, while Starfire came up behind Slade and fired a starbolt. Slade dropped to the ground unconscious. Robin retracted his bowstaff and advanced to Slade's fallen form, removing its mask. Slade's voice sounded from his robotic head. "See, I was real, wasn't I?" he taunted. "You'll never catch me, Robin. I will haunt you forever!" The screen on his head displayed a 5-second countdown. The Titans scrambled for cover as Slade's robot body exploded.

The rest of the day went by without any trouble. Having returned to the tower, the Titans were going to bed, except for Robin. Robin was again consigned to sleepless nights searching for Slade.

The door to Robin's room opened and Cyborg entered. "Robin, you really should rest now. We can look for Slade tomorrow—"

"I can't sleep. Slade is haunting me again. Until I find him I can't rest!" complained Robin. At this point Cyborg thought of the apparently insignificant radio signal he had picked up when Slade's body exploded earlier that day. "I think I have something that might help us to find Slade. Earlier today when we fought Slade, I picked up a radio signal from Slade's body at the moment he exploded." Robin was attentive immediately. "How does that help us?" he asked. Cyborg continued, "Judging by the strength of the signal, I'd estimate it was about 7 miles away from the place where we saw Slade." He moved over to the desk and took a sheet of paper and a pencil from the stationeries on the desk, then drew a rough map of the city. "If we start at the place where we fought Slade, then we know that the signal came from somewhere 7 miles away. So, we could search all the areas of the city that are 7 miles from the place we fought Slade. That would be the area next to this circle." He drew a circle centered on the bank where they had seen Slade. "It isn't much but it's the only lead we've got, so why don't you rest now. Tomorrow we'll start looking."

The next day, after their breakfast, Cyborg taught his plan to the other Titans. They set off for the downtown bank where they had defeated Slade. Near the front door of the bank Cyborg placed a transponder. A single red light on the transponder blinked to indicate that it was operational.

The Titans split up, each starting at a different point on the circle. Robin went due south, Cyborg southeast, Raven northeast, Starfire northwest, Beast Boy southwest. The city terminated about four miles south of the transponder they had placed at the bank, melting into open country. Robin continued walking for another three miles, then began to trace the path of the circle.

Before long the other Titans' communicators beeped. "Get to my location immediately," ordered Robin. "I think I've spotted something."

A few minutes later Beast Boy and Cyborg arrived from different directions, Beast Boy in the form of a green gazelle. Robin pointed out to them two small holes in the ground, each about four inches across. Starfire and Raven both arrived and were also shown the small holes. They noticed that the holes had been lined with metal—indicating that they were not natural. They decided to have a better look inside; Beast Boy transformed into a spider and entered one of the holes. It was initially dark but soon became light inside.

When Beast Boy reached the end of the narrow tunnel he found a ventilation grill. On the other side was a large chamber. A table held the familiar black-and-orange mask known to be Slade's. Slade himself was seen sitting at a computer switchboard. Some droids were further beyond, and then the spider form of Gizmo.

Beast Boy scuttled back up the tunnel and popped out. "What did you see Beast Boy?" demanded Robin anxiously. "The tunnel led into a ventilation shaft which led into a room, and there was Slade, he was sitting at some kind of control panel, and there were some droids, and Gizmo was in the room too," said Beast Boy. "Well, we know where Slade is now, but how are we going to get down that shaft?" asked Robin, before he remembered Raven's teleportation ability. "Can you get us down there?" he asked Raven. Soon they were encased in a 2-D black raven and diving into the earth.

Meanwhile, Slade went back to his project of assembling another robot of himself. His previous robot had been destroyed the day before, so he would have to build another one to haunt Robin. Suddenly a black raven dived out of the roof and the Titans landed on their feet in the chamber. Slade leaped out of his chair and drew his bowstaff. Gizmo and the droids shot lasers at the Titans from across the room, but the Titans dodged five separate ways. Robin went straight for Slade again. Beast Boy transformed into a falcon and zigzagged through the laser fire towards Gizmo. Some of the robots broke apart under a black halo; others were destroyed by starbolts or sonic cannon beams. Beast Boy's claws dug into Gizmo's backpack, breaking the sensitive electronic equipment and disabling Gizmo.

Robin found this Slade to be far more skilled than the previous ones. Robin brought his staff over his head down at Slade but Slade held his up in defense; Robin hit with such force that Slade's staff broke right in half. However, Slade simply extended each half back to full length and now twirled two bowstaffs at Robin. Robin tried bringing his staff around in a horizontal sweep but Slade blocked with one staff while swinging the other one upward, catching Robin in the groin. Robin staggered in pain. At this moment Slade jumped up and flying-kicked Robin in the stomach, sending him across the room.

The other Titans, having finished with Gizmo and the droids, approached Slade. Slade used his two bowstaffs to deflect the starbolts, black-haloed droid parts, and sonic cannon and jumped over Beast Boy, who was charging as a rhinoceros. Then, using a miracle maneuver impossible to replicate with remote control (which was how Slade controlled his robots), Slade jumped on the green rhinoceros and leaped from its back into the air towards Raven. Still in midair, he threw one of his bowstaffs at Raven, turned around and threw the other behind him towards Beast Boy, then—still in midair—drew an explosive disk and tossed it at Starfire just as his foot planted firmly on the biological half of Cyborg's face. At the same moment Beast Boy transformed into an armadillo and rolled out of the way of the second of Slade's bowstaffs, which planted itself in the ground. Raven formed a black shield and stopped the first bowstaff, which bounced off the shield and landed on the floor. Cyborg cried out in pain as half of his face received the impact of Slade's boot. Starfire almost rolled out of the way but Slade's explosive disk blew up too close and ignited her hair. Slade was rushing for the door when Robin's bird-a-rang clipped off his mask. The mask clattered to the floor, revealing his spiky brown hair as he turned away and escaped through the door.

Robin, seeing that this was the real Slade and not a robot, ran furiously for the door but found Slade hiding behind several hundred robots, Plasmus, Cinderblock, Jinx, Mammoth, and Overload. They chased him back out of that room and into the main chamber with the other Titans. It was obvious that the Titans were going to be overwhelmed. "Titans, fall back!" shouted Robin, while throwing several smoke bombs. A 2-D black raven took the Titans through the roof to safety.

That night none of the Titans slept well. Aside from the reemergence of Slade there was the unusual and dangerous concentration of villains in Slade's headquarters.

The next morning, Cyborg was by far the first one up, since he didn't need that much sleep. By degrees other Titans emerged from their rooms. Cyborg noticed that Robin was still asleep.

Beast Boy and Cyborg continued their regular fight over what to eat for breakfast. The arguing delayed breakfast for a while, but eventually two breakfasts were set out on the table, one of them ordinary and the other made out of pure crushed soybeans.

"Robin! Get up, it's time for breakfast!"

No answer.

Starfire knocked on the door to Robin's room. "Robin, are you there?"

A faint sound was heard, but the Titans couldn't make out the words.

Cyborg smashed through the door with one punch. A bruised, cut, black-eyed Robin fell out into the hallway. Shocked expressions instantly appeared on all the Titans' faces. Starfire leaped to his side. "Robin, what has happened to you?" she asked anxiously.

"Slade…" was all she could make out before Robin blacked out.


	2. Make it so

Chapter 2

Robin awoke to find himself tied down on a stretcher in the hospital room of Titans Tower, surrounded by his friends. He saw many bandages covering all the cuts he had received. "Why am I tied up?..." he wondered for an instant and then guessed the reason. The others obviously feared that he would keep hallucinating about Slade after he woke up. "Robin, what happened last night?" he heard Cyborg's voice asking.

"You can untie me, the hallucination only happened in the dark remember?" Robin suggested. After checking to see that the light was on, his friends removed the restraints, allowing Robin to sit up.

"How did you get into this condition?" asked Raven, reminding Robin of Cyborg's question.

"I had nightmares," replied Robin.

"About Slade?"

Robin nodded.

"But how did he get all the cuts and bruises?" wondered Cyborg aloud. "I checked his blood for any chemical reagents and there aren't any!"

"Check more thoroughly!" demanded Starfire. "What else could cause the nightmares?

"Perhaps Robin was sleepwalking," suggested Raven, providing an answer. "Or maybe Slade developed some new chemical reagent that can't be detected."

"There is one way to find out. I can install a video camera in Robin's room.

That afternoon, Cyborg used spare parts from the T-car to construct a video camera, which he attached in a corner of Robin's room. There was no sign of trouble the rest of the day. At night, as an extra precaution, Cyborg left his detachable hand in Robin's room. The Titans again retired to their rooms and waited.

At about midnight, the window in Robin's room silently slid open and a shadowed figure threw a handful of dust into the room. In accordance with Cyborg's programming the camera immediately triggered an alarm. Sirens blared through the tower, waking up all the Titans. The shadow figure rappelled to the ground and fled.

Cyborg was the first to rush into Robin's room. Robin groggily sat up in his bed, then suddenly bolted out of bed and started kicking and punching at thin air. The other Titans arrived at the door behind Cyborg. Robin inexplicably (and obviously unwillingly) flew into a wall and fell to the floor. Cyborg turned and flicked the light switch on the wall.

Robin got up and continued his imaginary fight. The other Titans stood amazed.

"I thought the hallucination thing only worked in the dark!" cried Beast Boy. "I know!" said Cyborg. "Slade must have developed a new chemical that works in the light."

"No, he's just sleepwalking," said Raven. "I can feel it."

On hearing this Cyborg reached for Robin but barely missed as he was thrown away from Cyborg's hand. Cyborg picked Robin off the floor and shouted "Wake up Robin!" At this point, the other Titans could see clearly in the light that Robin's eyes were closed as he struck out at an imaginary Slade, hitting Cyborg square in the chest. Cyborg shook Robin and shouted again, this time in Robin's ear. Robin's eyes popped open and he suddenly realized that he was aiming a kick at Cyborg.

To Robin's relief, Slade was no longer present. At the hospital room, Cyborg found the chemical reagent in Robin's bloodstream, while the other Titans reviewed the camera footage.

"Look!" Beast Boy pointed to the screen. "Someone's putting the powder in Robin's room!"

"That would probably be Slade," guessed Robin.

Beast Boy was still watching the camera footage. "You know, this is the third time Slade's used the hallucination trick. It seems to work really well…"

Robin's expression suddenly lit up as he took in what Beast Boy said. "In that case, why don't we make our own chemical reagent?"

The Titans took a split second to realize what Robin had said. "It's brilliant!" shouted Beast Boy. "We'll make a reagent that causes Slade to hallucinate, and eventually he'll die of sleep deprivation!"

Robin turned to Cyborg, still with only one thought on his mind. "Cyborg, could you make such a chemical?"

"Well, in theory it's easy to make one; Slade's chemical uses amphetamine and street hallucinogens. There are two difficulties; the first is how we get these drugs, because they're illegal, and the second is how to get Slade to inhale the mixture."

"I can get the drugs from the police station tomorrow," said Robin. "Let's go to sleep."

The next morning, Cyborg and Beast Boy had their usual argument over breakfast. For once Robin was impatient to get over with breakfast and start tracking Slade. After what seemed to him like an eternity but was really only two minutes, Robin stepped into the kitchen to settle the argument so that everyone would be able to start breakfast.

"Since the two of you can't decide what to make, how about if I cook today?" he suggested. Cyborg and Beast Boy were too busy squabbling to notice. Finally, Robin squeezed past them to the other end of the kitchen and hurled two explosive disks, throwing Cyborg and Beast Boy out of the kitchen. Then Robin set about making the breakfast.

Robin took only five minutes to cook, being so anxious to get to work on Slade. The other Titans took their time with the large meal while Robin inhaled his food as fast as possible and started to leave. "Where are you going so fast?" asked Beast Boy. "I'm going to the police station for the supplies," replied Robin. The other Titans continued to eat, and by the time they were done Robin was back with several plastic bags full of drugs that had been seized by the police.

Later that morning the Titans gathered in their laboratory and watched Cyborg mix up the chemical. First he took a small test tube with a small amount of powder. "This is the chemical reagent used by Slade," he explained. "Basically, it contains a chemically altered version of several hallucinogens mixed with standard amphetamine, and a sequence of encapsulated neurotransmitters, probably from one of Slade's nerve cells, that store false nerve signals. Now what we need is to decide what we want Slade to see. Depending on what neurotransmitters in what sequence are placed in these small capsules, Slade will perceive different things."

Robin knew exactly what hallucination he wanted to create for Slade. "Make the chemical so that when Slade inhales it, he imagines himself fighting me, just like in his own reagent. But make it so that he feels himself losing. There are also a few special situations that have to be watched for or they'll spoil the illusion."

An hour later, as Cyborg and Robin worked together to create the chemical reagent, an alarm went off. "Beast Boy, Raven, Starfire, go and handle the alarm," commanded Robin. "Cyborg and I will stay behind and build the chemical." The other three Titans looked at each other. They were not used to getting this kind of order; Robin normally led the Titans in battle. However, they followed their leader's orders and set off to stop Overload from robbing a bank.

Four days later, with four alarms having occurred in the interim, Cyborg and Robin emerged from the laboratory carrying two large vials of powder. "Now all that remains is to find Slade," said Robin.

As if on cue, the alarm again sounded. Slade had reappeared at the same bank that had already been attacked five times in five days—previously by Overload, Dr. Light, Mammoth, Brother Blood, and Plasmus. Robin carried one powder vial while Cyborg carried the other as the team rushed to face Slade.

At the bank, Slade had knocked out all the guards with his bowstaff and started heading down to the basement. A green rhinoceros caught up with him, knocking him down from behind and trampling over him. Slade rolled out of the way and barely avoided a green starbolt, then backflipped up as a sonic cannon beam passed right between his arms. The green rhinoceros turned into a T-rex and lashed around with its tail, knocking him right into one of Robin's freeze disks. Robin charged forward and kicked off Slade's mask. Slade's robotic computer screen stared back at Robin, then displayed only a one-second countdown, knocking all the Titans away. "Cyborg, did you get any radio signals?" shouted Robin over the noise. After a short pause Cyborg managed to respond: "Yeah, the signal came from somewhere exactly 2.53 miles away." "Start searching!" ordered Robin anxiously. The Titans split up as they had before and started looking for Slade's second hideout.


	3. Slade takes his medicine

Chapter 3

Five minutes into the search, Cyborg was walking through the park looking for any sign of an underground place. Suddenly his foot was caught in a small hole in the edge of the park. After a sustained effort he got his foot free and looked. It was another exhaust vent, similar to the one they had found for Slade's first hideout. Cyborg called the others using his arm phone.

"I think this might be the place. There's an exhaust vent here just like the one we saw for Slade's other hideout!" said Cyborg. "I'll be at your location shortly. Stay right there," responded Robin.

Robin put his communicator back into his utility belt and ran towards the park. The others weren't as obsessed with getting to Slade and were in no hurry to arrive. Minutes later Robin got to the park and saw Cyborg waiting near the sidewalk.

Cyborg pointed the hole out. "It was concealed by some grass but I accidentally stepped in it," he explained. "Maybe Beast Boy should take another look inside."

"Do you still have our chemical reagent?" asked Robin.

"Right here." Cyborg brought out the two vials of powder.

"I think this is Slade's hideout," said Robin optimistically. "Put the powder down the hole."

"Not so fast!" warned Cyborg. "The hole might not lead straight to Slade's room underground. There could be several bends in the pipe."

Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire arrived at about the same time. Robin turned to Beast Boy. "Take this chemical down the pipe until you get to the end. Don't let Slade see you. When you see Slade, open the vial and let the chemical fall into the room."

First Robin dropped the vial into the darkness of the pipe. Beast Boy shrank into a mouse and followed.

A short while later Beast Boy emerged from the pipe and transformed back to his usual form. "Did you succeed?" asked Robin.

Beast Boy looked around confused. He switched his stare from Robin to the empty space near Cyborg. Suddenly he fell to the ground, then flew into the sidewalk and landed painfully on the cement. An invisible hand seemed to pick up Beast Boy as he then recoiled as if he was being punched and kicked. He flew backwards and again landed on the sidewalk.

Cyborg realized what had happened. "Beast Boy must have gotten a dose of our chemical reagent!"

The actual, real Robin rushed over to Beast Boy, who looked up and got more confused. Robin pointed to himself and shouted, "That Robin is only a hallucination! I'm the real Robin! Remember, you were exposed to the chemical when you left it in Slade's room!"

As soon as Beast Boy took in what the actual Robin said, the imaginary Robin immediately disappeared. Beast Boy couldn't stand after having been beaten up by the imagined Robin, so the Titans had to carry him back to the Tower.

Meanwhile…

In the new underground cavern Slade had recently built, he failed to notice the powder that had fallen into the room from the ventilation grille. Suddenly, realizing (falsely) there was someone behind him, he turned around. A roof tile opened (in his imagination) and Robin dropped through to land on the floor.

Without another word Slade ran forward, aiming a flying kick at what he thought was Robin. "Robin" dodged to one side and threw a right hook, which Slade (thought he) blocked. In Slade's view, Robin backflipped up, kicking Slade right under the chin as he did so. Slade stumbled backward, his jaw in pain. "Robin" followed up with a flying kick forward, but Slade sidestepped and turned to attempt to strike "Robin" from behind, but "Robin" had "anticipated" this somehow and kicked backwards with his foot, catching Slade in the groin. Slade cried out in pain and staggered back. "Robin" kept right on going, leaping back into the air to begin another flying kick. Slade struggled to sidestep the kick; however, when he evaded "Robin's" forward foot, he was caught by "Robin's" other foot and thrown across the room. Slade, despite his pain, stood to face "Robin" as he approached menacingly.

"Don't think you can defeat me with this one battle!" shouted Slade, trying to sound intimidating and nearly succeeding. "Even if you kill me, I will always come back to haunt you!"

Only Slade heard "Robin" speaking. "You're not coming back anymore, not when I'm finished with you. You've been hiding from me all this time, sending robots for me to destroy while you cower down here…but I have you now, and your life ends right now!"

"Robin" charged (of course only Slade saw it) and threw an uppercut. Just then Slade's communicator rang. Slade ignored the call. He had a more urgent matter at hand.

Slade simply caught "Robin's" fist and twisted it, and was rewarded with "Robin's" cry of pain. But Slade was then caught off guard as "Robin" raised his knee, catching Slade in the stomach. In his surprise and pain Slade let go of "Robin's" hand, and "Robin" immediately reused that hand in an uppercut to Slade's chin, which had already been bruised from "Robin's" earlier kick. Slade suddenly dropped low and kicked out at "Robin's" feet. "Robin" easily jumped over the kick, then backflipped and gave Slade another kick under the chin. Without missing a beat "Robin" threw another left hook, then somersaulted forward, bringing his heel downward into contact with Slade's forehead and knocking Slade to the floor. Slade tried to get up again but the pain of the blows he had imagined was too much. "Robin", however, took advantage and stomped down on Slade's stomach. A thin trickle of blood started to emerge from under Slade's mask. "Robin" then repeatedly jumped up and down on Slade's stomach, bringing out a trickle of blood each time. Slade finally tapped his last bit of endurance and jumped up, grabbing "Robin's" foot" as it came down for the umpteenth time, and slammed "Robin" into the ground. However, just as Slade brought his fist down for the finishing attack, "Robin" leaped up again and caught Slade with an uppercut to the groin, followed by another somersault kick to the stomach, throwing Slade against the wall.

Just then the large door into the room swung open and Brother Blood entered, looking for Slade. "Slade, why didn't you—" His expression instantly was shocked at the sight of Slade, prostrate on the floor, with a trickle of blood from his mouth. "Whoa! What happened to you?"

Brother Blood was startled as Slade suddenly lifted up from the ground and slammed into the wall again. "Get Robin!" shouted Slade, already angry that Brother Blood wasn't helping.

"Robin? What Robin?" Blood was puzzled.

"Right—Uff!" Slade cried out in pain as he was thrown right towards Brother Blood. Blood was caught off guard and Slade landed right on him, knocking both of them to the ground. Blood looked around and saw no one. "Slade, what the hell is going on!?"

"Can't you see…it's…Robin…" before Slade suddenly felt the imaginary impact of an invisible shoe on his chest.

"There's no one else here except you and me!" exclaimed Brother Blood.

"No! I can see him right the--"

Brother Blood stood up, slightly hurt from having Slade land on him, and pointed his hands right next to Slade, firing a stream of red electricity. Slade imagined seeing Robin bend backwards and evade the electricity.

"You can't see him because he has a cloaking device!" explained Slade, thinking it was the only possibility.

"Then how come you can see him?" challenged Blood. "If he was cloaked, you wouldn't see him; if he wasn't, I would!"

Slade suddenly was reminded of another possibility. Perhaps Robin was really not there!

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. He had handled the chemical reagent before, after all; might he not have fallen victim to the same illusion?

"Robin" charged forward. Slade turned and calmly walked towards the door, knowing that "Robin" did not exist. He was less sure of himself when he felt the unmistakable impact of a foot on his back, knocking him to the ground.

"Robin! I know you're not real! You can't hurt me!" shouted Slade defiantly.

"If I'm not real, then who gave you those bruises?" mocked Robin, in such a way that only Slade heard his response. "You've haunted me so long now with your hiding in the darkness, tormenting me from some hole in the ground…but no longer! Your life ends now and I will never be haunted again!"

Robin charged again, ready to finish the fight. Slade thought of what Robin had done with his hallucination.

"Lights out, Robin!" resolved Slade, as he reached the light switch and turned it off. As the room darkened the image of Robin disappeared in mid-charge.


	4. Robin's Wish Fulfilled

Chapter 4

Slade, still wearing multiple bandages from his imagined fight with Robin, but cured of the reagent, continued his previous task—building another Slade-like robot. Brother Blood approached again. "Master Slade," he began. "I've successfully fixed your memory-transfer machine, but the memories from the past four hours when the machine was down didn't transfer. You'll have to do it manually."

Slade looked around. "Thank you for the report Brother Blood. I'll replace the missing four hours." He pointed to the nearly-complete robot that resembled him everywhere except the face. "Build me another three robots just like this one," he commanded. "Make them the same in every way. Everything must be identical down to the millimeter." Then Slade left the room.

In the next room Slade tapped a series of bricks, then walked right into the wall and phased through. The wall, in fact, was a hologram, backed by a forcefield that could be deactivated by the right sequence of taps on the wall. Slade phased back through the wall into a small room with several pieces of electronic equipment including two computers, and a glass tank filled with liquid containing a naked body of the exact dimensions as Slade. A few wires were attached to the body's head and spine. Slade sat down in a chair and removed his helmet and mask, setting them on a conveniently placed table nearby, and placed his head inside a metal band held by a frame slightly higher than the computer screen before him. He typed into the keyboard in front of him, and the results were displayed on the computer screen:

* * *

Please enter password:

Please select from following options: 4

1) Deactivate machine

2) Reboot

3) Upgrade hardware

4) Replace lost memories

5) Delete memories

Enter approximate start time of replacement: 0920

Neural link established

Transferring information to disk…

Transfer complete.

Sending information to project Clone8.hme

Done

* * *

Satisfied, Slade stood back up and left the room. Now the figure in the tank—actually a clone of him—was truly identical to him. The sleeping clone had all the memories, skills, and strength of Slade. If Slade died, the clone would take his place to haunt Robin. In the meantime, he had Brother Blood making him an army of robots. 

Slade re-entered the main chamber. Brother Blood was just attaching the right foot of one of the four robots. The other three were nearly complete except for a mask and head each. "That's enough," he announced to Brother Blood. "I can take it from here." Brother Blood bowed and left the chamber. Slade used the solder to attach the heads—one to each robot—then flicked the secret on/off switch behind each robot's mask. The robots sat up on the table and awaited their master's command.

The Titans had a rather uncommon afternoon. Raven sat on the couch reading her horror book and, since they had run out of teabags, she had to drink hot water instead. Robin took a break from training, for once, and played video games with Beast Boy. It should have been Starfire's turn to get the groceries but since she didn't understand most of the shopping list Cyborg volunteered to accompany her and teach her about the Earth groceries. Beast Boy had already lost to Robin four times in a row and was becoming more and more frustrated.

When the living room became too loud for Raven to concentrate on her book she moved into her room, leaving Robin and Beast Boy with their racing game. Beast Boy pushed buttons on his controller faster than ever before, while Robin didn't really try at his controller, leisurely playing at a slow pace. Yet Robin's car pulled inexorably ahead of Beast Boy's, leaving Beast Boy more and more frustrated while he continued to push buttons faster to no effect. Suddenly, as Beast Boy looked from the screen back to his controller, he noticed that his controller wasn't connected to the console!

"Robin you cheater!" shouted Beast Boy angrily, "You disconnected my controller!" He threw his controller at Robin, but Robin leaned back and dodged it. Before they could continue fighting, however, the alarm sounded. It turned out to be Slade robbing another bank. Robin forgot all about the video game, thinking only of Slade as he ran down the stairs to the garage and got on his R-cycle. Beast Boy transformed into a cheetah to keep up while Raven phased through the wall of her room and flew to join them.

Cyborg drove the T-car with Starfire in the passenger seat and the groceries in the back. As they headed towards the bank in question the T-car suddenly exploded from beneath, trapping its occupants in rubble.

At the bank, Robin, Beast Boy, and Raven faced off against three different Slades, one of which seemed to be the leader, since he directed the other two. The lead Slade motioned to the others, who drew freeze disks and hurled them at Beast Boy and Raven, while he himself ran towards Robin.

Cyborg and Starfire climbed out of the wreckage of the T-car. (Another) Slade emerged from the door of a nearby restaurant and rushed at Cyborg, while a second (fifth?) Slade jumped off the roof and with his foot outstretched hurtled towards Starfire. Cyborg fired his sonic cannon at his opponent, who cartwheeled out of the way. Starfire shot her eye-beams at her opponent, knocking him against the wall of the apartment from which he had jumped. He pulled out his grappling hook and hooked onto a windowsill just in time to break his fall. Cyborg fired his sonic cannon again but his opponent whipped out a bowstaff and deflected the cannon shot. Starfire's opponent also used his own bowstaff, batting away several starbolts before throwing a freeze disk.

Robin and Slade at the bank matched each other blow for blow, freeze disk for freeze disk, electric disk for electric disk, bowstaff for bowstaff, etc. Beast Boy charged at his opponent as a rhinoceros but that Slade jumped up and somersaulted over the rhinoceros. Beast Boy turned into a gorilla and slammed at his opponent but his opponent jumped out of the way again while throwing a freeze disk, which Beast Boy avoided by morphing into a snake. Raven's black shield cracked under the impact of her opponent's bowstaff. A nearby car glowed black and flew towards Slade, but he threw himself to the floor and the car barely passed over him. Slade somersaulted forward, landing his heel on Raven's shoulder and crushing her to the ground in pain.

Starfire moved aside and Slade's freeze disk missed, instead striking the door of the opposite restaurant and freezing it. Slade threw some electric disks instead, but Starfire destroyed them with starbolts. The other Slade connected a fist to Cyborg's (metal) groin and recoiled in pain, shaking his hand, but managed to dodge Cyborg's punch. Cyborg stepped forward and punched and kicked at Slade, but he nimbly dodged all the blows, which were too powerful to block. The other Slade backflipped off the wall behind him and aimed a flying kick at Starfire, batting away her starbolts with his bowstaff. Starfire jumped out of the way and Slade landed perfectly. Slade made his first mistake when he drew an explosive disk and was forced to lean back to dodge Cyborg's sonic cannon. The sonic cannon beam hit the disk in his hand instead, before he could throw it, and the resulting explosion vaporized Slade. Starfire evaded the flying kick from the other Slade by flying around him, then kicked the dropping Slade in the head. The head fell away from the body and that robot deactivated.

Another Slade momentarily lost track of Beast Boy, who had turned into a mouse. When he spotted Beast Boy at his feet it was too late, as Beast Boy morphed into a gorilla and brought his fists down on Slade, crushing the robot to a pancake. Beast Boy transformed into a lion and charged at the Slade that was trading bowstaffs, disks, kicks, and punches with Robin. That Slade somersaulted away, throwing two smoke bombs. Robin was unable to pursue him through the smoke and he escaped. They turned to Raven, who was drawing shields to block Slade's kicks and punches. Robin aimed a freeze disk while Beast Boy ran towards Slade. Both their attacks were too late as a black halo surrounded Slade, shattering his robotic body.

Robin was disappointed as the Titans met up again. "Those were all robots. None of them were really Slade!"

As if on cue another Slade rappelled down from above, planting an electric disk on Cyborg's back before kicking Raven right in the face, then drawing a bowstaff. The other Titans looked up. The ends of the bowstaff had sharp dagger blades sticking out. Slade twirled the staff around and ran right at Robin. Starfire shot out more starbolts but Slade deflected them all; Beast Boy charged as a rhino but Slade somersaulted over. Robin raised his own bowstaff and blocked the attack. Then Robin did something unexpected: he spun his staff again and sharp blades extended from each end, just like Slade's bowstaff.

"Titans, lethal weaponry!" ordered Robin, and he started trading blows with Slade at an unimaginable pace. The others were afraid to fire for fear they would hit Robin. Soon Slade showed that he had a trick up his sleeve: He removed his mask with one hand while dueling Robin with the other, then held the mask's forehead and punched forward. The sharp edge of the mask cleaved through Robin's body, splattering blood everywhere.

"Robin, you've been looking for the real Slade for so long!" said the man in the Slade suit, a brown-haired, blue-eyed man of about thirty. "Well, now you have him! Here is the real Slade in front of you! Didn't you ever consider for a moment that the real Slade was more than you could handle? No! You couldn't just stick to practicing on my less-skilled droids. You had to find me. You have me now, are you happy?"

The other Titans charged. Slade pulled out two hemispheres of black metal that were about half the size of a baseball. He held them in the air and slammed them together.

A bright light appeared in downtown Jump City. The Titans, Slade, and any living thing outside caught fire and burned to death. Buildings melted and imploded. A massive gray mushroom cloud rose over the ruined landscape. Disfigured, bloody corpses filled the crater that was just a few seconds ago known as Jump City.

Far underground, a naked, sleeping man with brown hair opened his blue eyes, stepped out of a cloning chamber and put on the orange and black suit attributed to Slade. At the cost of his own death, as well as many others, Slade was finally rid of the Teen Titans forever.

The End


End file.
